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Ryan Tomazin presented Holistic Birding: Seeing Without Seeing, Hearing Without Hearing. The slideshow and audio focused on trying to deepen our senses beyond the obvious, for when birds don’t behave and sing nicely in full view. The theories draw upon Ryan’s personal experiences with our eclectic feathered brethren. He has deliberately blurred out his chosen picture in order to punctuate his presentation.

This was our last meeting of the season. Next meeting September 12th. See you on the trail.

On an overcast day, we walked the first mile of the trail before it started to drizzle. Wearing rain gear and using our umbrellas, we finished the round trip without getting wet. We saw 29 species in flower and two in bud.

Thursday, April 11, 7:30 pm. Dianne Machesney presented The Spotted Lanternﬂy. Dianne Machesney is a Penn State Master Gardener and a naturalist with a life long love of gardening and nature. The Spotted Lanternfly is a particularly devastating invasive insect making its way westward across Pennsylvania. Dianne addressed what we all need to look out for as we prepare for this serious agricultural pest, and what to do if you find one. Call 1-888-4BAD-FLY 1-888-422-3359.

Members were good sports and wore the paper Spotted Lanternfly hats, provided as a good way to remember what to look for. As an encore, information was given about the Asian Jumping Worm, another invasive that is already present in W. PA.

This is a favorite trip for early spring ephemerals and Snow
Trillium. The walk is easy along an old railroad grade.

Directions: Take the PA Turnpike to Exit 67-Route
30/Irwin/Greensburg. Take the Route 30 East/Greensburg ramp. At the first
stoplight on Route 30, turn right onto Arona Road, then another right after 0.5
mile onto unmarked Wendel Road. Travel this road 3.7 miles to a T. Turn right
at the T and continue 1 mile to Herminie to a 4-way stop (VFD on corner).
Continue straight to the next stop sign and turn left. Proceed through 2 more
stop signs, end at a T, and turn right. Continue past the Dairy Queen on your
right and continue down a hill; we will meet just before the highway bridge.
Park on the left side.

These directions are difficult as roads are unmarked and state roads through Herminie sometimes look like alleys. If you can use them, the GPS coordinates will likely take you by a more direct route. GPS coordinates: 40.26050, -79.72700.

Bonnie Isaac presented Herbarium Happenings. Bonnie Isaac, a Pennsylvania native, is the Collection Manager of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. She has been employed by the museum since 1989. Bonnie received her Bachelors & Masters degrees in Biological Sciences with emphasis in Plant Sciences from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio and an International Diploma in Herbarium Techniques, from the Kew Royal Botanical Garden in Kew, England. Bonnie serves on the Pennsylvania Botany Symposium Committee, the Pennsylvania Vascular Plant Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, and as President of the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania. When not botanizing, Bonnie enjoys hunting, traveling, gardening and snorkeling.

Janet, Eileen and Odie

We learned what a herbarium is, what is stored there, how to take and dry a sample for the collection and how today’s technology is giving us even more insight into plant DNA . The herbarium has a weekly blog featuring specimens from their collection at:https://www.masonheberling.com/collected-on-this-day

Colleen and Ed talk to Bonnie after her presentation.St. Patrick’s Day cookies from Janet.Monica gets the meeting started on time.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019, 12:00 noonNorth Park, Irwin Road, Allegheny CountyLeader: Richard Nugent: rmnugent@live.com; (412) 487-5549Directions: From PA 8 north of Pittsburgh, travel north about 7 miles from Etna to Wildwood Road. Turn left onto Wildwood Road and travel 3 miles to a major intersection and stoplight in the park at Babcock Blvd. Turn right onto Babcock Blvd, continuing a short distance to a parking lot on the left side of Babcock Blvd, just after the turn for Pearce Mill Road. Alternatively, travel I-79 north to Exit 73-Wexford. Turn right onto PA 910 and continue 5 miles to Babcock Blvd. Turn right onto Babcock Blvd and travel 2.7 miles to the parking lot on the right, just before Pearce Mill Road. Enjoying botany and nature on New Year’s Day is now a BSWP/Wissahickon tradition!This trip could be canceled due to unsafe driving conditions; to learn if the trip is canceled when weather conditions are uncertain, please call Richard at 412-487-5549 the day of the hike.

On Thursday, December 13, Don Weiss shared the beautiful sites and stories of his time at Glacier National Park during the first week on September. It is a lovely time of year to be in the park, with many mountain views and beautiful lakes. Although the fires and smoke the park was experiencing blocked many of the dramatic views, they did add their own photographic possibilities. There was plenty of wildlife in the National Bison Range, about 2 hours South of the park. Many birds and even a few flowers.

Our traditional annual Holiday, Christmas Cookie party followed his presentation.

﻿On Thursday, November 8, seventeen members braved the traffic caused by the Steelers v Panthers game ( Steelers won) and listened attentively as Polly Shaw presented the Making of Moraine – the Creation of a State Park. This program described the time period from 1946 when Preston and Arthur met, until 1970 when the new park was formally dedicated. Moraine State Park has been characterized as a great achievement in environmental engineering achievement so we looked at how the land use was changed from one of coal mining, oil drilling, farming, and swamp land, into today’s 16,725 acre park with a 3,225 acre lake.

Polly Shaw sets up her display table

The cover of Polly’s book about Moraine State Park and her upcoming new book about McConnells Mill State Park